‘You are weakening the voice of consumers’: Advocacy groups reeling after Ottawa’s funding cuts

Several consumer advocacy groups across the country are warning the voice of Canadian consumers could be in jeopardy.

Ottawa has announced it is phasing out the Canadian Consumer Protection Initiative and the Office of Consumer Affairs which currently supports non-profit consumer organizations. “It was shocking rather than surprising to hear that this program in the Office of Consumer Affairs is coming to an end,” said acting General Counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), Tahira Dawood.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is a national non-profit which advocates on behalf of consumers in several industries including telecommunications, financial services, and transportation.

Dawood warns the cuts will hurt all Canadians.

“This program has been in place for many decades and PIAC, along with other consumer groups, have relied on this program to produce very important and valuable independent consumer research,” she said.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) confirmed to Consumer Matters the savings associated with the changes will reach $2.6M per year by 2028-2029.

ISED spokesperson Hans Parmar stated the decision was part of the Comprehensive Expenditure Review announced in Budget 2025, which is taking measures to “deliver more efficiently and effectively on main priorities like consumer protection.”

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“Agency organizations such as the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the CRTC, and others continue to provide Canadians with effective ways to voice their concerns and ensure fairness and transparency in our marketplace,” he added.

However, Dawood strongly disagrees. “You are weakening the voice of consumers because consumers don’t go on their own to present their arguments to a regulator. If there is no consumer group that is able to actively participate in different regulatory hearings or different matters, then you don’t have your voice on the table,” she argued.

Non-profit Car Help Canada, which helps consumers in the automotive industry, says the Canadian Consumer Protection Initiative provided critical funding to its research projects over the past 25 years.

“This sustained support directly enabled initiatives that advanced consumer education campaigns, drove delegated authority policy reforms, and shaped provincial and federal consumer protection legislation. Without this vital funding stream, our organization’s capacity to conduct essential consumer advocacy research is severely compromised,” said Car Help Canada’s Shari Prymak.

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Option consommateurs, a Quebec-based non-profit consumer advocacy group, is also sounding the alarm.

“This decision will make public interests weaker and private interests will be more powerful. It’s as simple as that,” said Christian Corbeil, Executive Director of Option consommateurs.

Corbeil proposes that funds from the private sector be used as a solution to the recent cuts.

He suggests fines imposed by the Competition Bureau for violations of federal consumer protection laws could be allocated to a fund dedicated to financing consumer organizations.

“I think it is a pragmatic approach in an economy of constraints that will respond to the needs of the government to lower costs, but on the other side to protect consumers,” said Corbeil.

Still, Dawood notes her organization is navigating through the recent announcement. “This is very disappointing. We do not know of any alternatives,” she said.

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